A 2018 aerial view of Pipeline Foods’ grain elevator at Gull Lake in southwestern Saskatchewan. (Pipeline Foods video screengrab via YouTube)

Bankrupt organic firm’s Prairie growers to be paid

CGC to issue compensation

Over four dozen Prairie grain growers who supplied a Minneapolis firm specializing in organic and non-GMO grains will get paid in full, the Canadian Grain Commission says. The CGC on Tuesday announced the results of its review of producer claims in the wake of last July’s bankruptcy filing by Pipeline Foods, whose footprint in Canada […] Read more

Greenleaf Foods, a subsidiary of meat processor Maple Leaf Foods, last month began providing its plant-based Lightlife Chick’n Tenders to convenience chain 7-Eleven in Canada. (Dave Bedard photo)

ADM releases alternative protein outlook for 2022

MarketsFarm — Major U.S. agribusiness ADM released a report Tuesday identifying the seven biggest trends in the alternative protein market, ranging from creating new protein sources from fungi to making plant-based meat substitutes more affordable and palatable to the general public. The seven trends in the report were: introduction of novel protein sources, using microbial […] Read more


File photo of the Canada-U.S. border crossing connecting Sarnia, Ont. and Port Huron, Michigan. (Eyfoto/iStock/Getty Images)

Canada, U.S. fear economic damage from border crossing protest

Headway in one area, another protest elsewhere, minister says

Windsor/Ottawa/Washington | Reuters — Truckers blocking U.S-Canada border crossings risk hurting the auto industry and agriculture, the White House said on Wednesday as Ottawa urged an end to the 13-day demonstration against coronavirus mandates. After nearly two years of pandemic measures in many countries, opposition has sprung up in different ways with copycat protests in […] Read more

CBOT March 2022 corn (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (yellow, orange and dark green lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Corn, soy futures set eight-month highs

USDA lowers South America corn, soy crop estimates

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soybean and corn futures set eight-month highs on Wednesday on concerns about the risk for more unfavorable crop weather in drought-stressed growing areas of South America, traders said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a monthly crop report, pegged Brazil’s soy crop at 134 million tonnes, […] Read more


An autosampler is one of the devices used to analyze soils.

Soil tests more valuable than ever

This is the year you might see a big payback from spring soil sampling

Oftentimes, finding the right formula for applying fertilizer can be a delicate balancing act for farmers. Apply too much or in the wrong place, you’ve wasted some money. Apply too little or not where it’ll benefit most, and you can lose money by failing to maximize your yield potential. And as soil fertility expert Don […] Read more

(Dave Bedard photo)

StatsCan confirms tight grain and oilseed stocks

Canadian corn stocks up on year

MarketsFarm — Canada’s tight supplies of canola, wheat and other crops following the 2021 Prairie drought received more confirmation from Statistics Canada with the release of updated stocks data on Tuesday. Canola stocks, as of Dec. 31, 2021, of 7.6 million tonnes were down 43 per cent from the previous year and the tightest since […] Read more


AAFC’s Drought Monitor map effective Jan. 31, 2022. (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)

Drought conditions ease slightly across Prairies

MarketsFarm — Mixed precipitation throughout January helped drought conditions improve across much of the Canadian Prairies during the month, according to the latest Drought Monitor report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), released Tuesday. Conditions have deteriorated in some areas, however, and the majority of Western Canada was still in some kind of drought state. […] Read more

CBOT March 2022 soybeans (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (yellow, dark green and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans dip ahead of USDA report

Wheat underpinned by U.S. dryness

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago soybean prices fell on Tuesday, a day after hitting an eight-month high, ahead of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s monthly global supply and demand assessment that is expected to downgrade South American crop production. Corn also eased, while wheat firmed, underpinned by ongoing dryness across the U.S. southern Plains. The Chicago […] Read more


Protestors’ vehicles block the route leading from the Ambassador Bridge, linking Detroit and Windsor, on Feb. 8, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/Carlos Osorio)

Pandemic protestors block Windsor border crossing

Commercial traffic being diverted to Sarnia

Ottawa | Reuters — The busiest land crossing between the U.S. and Canada was jammed on Tuesday after Canadian protestors blocked lanes on Monday over their government’s pandemic control measures. While traffic in both directions was initially blocked, U.S.-bound lanes have since reopened, Windsor Police tweeted. Drivers demanding an end to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates […] Read more

In the foreground is the new variety with no manganese — and no crop. In the background is the new variety with manganese — a good crop. On the left is Dwayne Ericksmoen of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and on the right is Guido Myovella of Tanzania Agriculture.

Les Henry: Integrated, three-province, field research program for micronutrients needed

Some mechanism to assemble and publish case studies would be an asset

In Henry’s Handbook we had this to say about micronutrients: “I do not suffer under any illusion that we have discovered all the micronutrient deficiencies that exist in Western Canada. It is best to maintain an open mind when the question of a new deficiency comes up. Micronutrient research is expensive and often not exciting […] Read more